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Selections from Kitab al-Fitan

The following is an extraction of the narrations in Nu`aym b. Hammad’s Kitab al-Fitan (d. 229 AH), narrating on the authority of Jabir b. Yazid al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far, Muhammad al-Baqir عليه السلام. Kitab al-Fitan is an important early work of apocalyptic narrations of non-Shi`i provenance. We have included them here more out of historical interest, and without making thereby a statement as to their authenticity or lack thereof. Due to the nature of these narrations, the translation proved difficult and much of it should be considered tenuous.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: When it reaches the year one hundred and twenty nine, and the swords of the Banu Umayya disagree, and the donkey of the island leaps and conquers Sham, the black standards will appear in the year one hundred and twenty and the rams (al-akbash, can also mean leaders) will appear with a group whom their hearts do not notice like a piece of iron. Their hair is to their shoulders. They do not have clemency or mercy upon their enemies. Their names are the kunya, and their tribes are the villages. Upon them are clothing like the color of the dark night. By them they lead to the Family of al-`Abbas, and it is their government. So they will kill the scholars of that time, until they flee from them to the desert. So their government will not cease to be until the star of the possessor of the tails appears, and they disagree in what is between them.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: When the `Abbasid reaches Khorasan, the horn of the possessor of healing will rise. And the first of what it rose with was the destruction of the people of Nuh when Allah destroyed them. And it rose in the time of Ibrahim عليه السلام when they cast him in the fire. And when Allah destroyed Fir`awn and whoever was with him. And when Yahya b. Zakariyya was killed. So when you see that, then seek refuge with Allah from the evil of the strife. And its rising will be after the eclipse of the sun and the moon. Then, they will not linger until the spotted one appears in Egypt.

حدثنا سعيد أبو عثمان عن جابر عن أبي جعفر قال يملك السفياني حمل امرأة

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir from Abu Ja`far. He said: The Sufyani will rule (for) the pregnancy of a woman.

حدثنا سعيد أبو عثمان عن جابر عن أبي جعفر قال هو أخوص العين.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir from Abu Ja`far. He said: He is of sunken eye.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: When their word varies and the horn of the possessor of healing rises, it shall not be but a short while until the spotted one appears in Egypt killing the people until they reach Iram. Then the disfigured one will revolt against him and between them there will be great butchery. Then the accursed Sufyani will appear and defeat them both. And prior to that twelve recognized standards will rise in Kufa, and a man from the children of al-Husyan will come (?) to Kufa calling to his father, then the Sufyani will spread his army.

al-Walid from a Shaykh from Jabir from Abu Ja`far Muhammad b. `Ali. He said: Four people will be killed in Sham, all of them children of a caliph: a man from the Banu Marwan, and a man from the family of Abu Sufyan. He said: So the Sufyani will defeat the Marwanids, then follow the Banu Marwan and kill them. Then he will come to the people of the East and the Banu `Abbas, until he enters Kufa.

Abu Ja`far said: The Sufyani will dispute with one of the Banu Marwan in Damascus and defeat the Marwani and kill him, then he will kill the Banu Marwan for three months, then come to the people of the East until he enters Kufa.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir from Abu Ja`far. He said: When the spotted one appears with a group of possessors of bodies, there will be between them a great slaughter. Then the sunken-eyed accursed Sufyani will appear and fight all of them and defeat them both. Then he the Yamani Mansur will go to them from Sana`a with his armies, and he has a severe rage, fighting the people desperately with the killing of Pagandom. So he and the sunken-eyed will meet, and their standards are yellow, and their clothing is colored. So between them there will be a severe fight, then the sunken-eyed Sufyani will defeat him. Then Rome will appear and the going to Sham. Then the sunken-eyed will appear. Then the Kindi will appear in a good symbol. So when he reaches a mount of sky (tall sama), and draws near, then goes to Iraq. And before that, twelve standards will be raised in Kufa, known, attributed, and a man from the children of al-Hasan or al-Husayn will be killed in Kufa calling to his father. And a man from the mawali will appear, and when his affair becomes clear and he exaggerates in killing, the Sufyani will kill him.

Abu `Uthman from Jabir from Abu Ja`far. He said: When the Sufyani defeats the spotted one and the Mansur and the Kindi and the Turk and the Roman, he will go out and turn to Iraq. Then the horn of the possessor of healing will rise, so with that will be the destruction of `Abdullah. And the deposed will be deposed and attribute to groups in Madina az-Zawra upon ignorance. So the sunken-eyed will appear upon Medina forcefully, and kill in it with a great massacre, and kill six rams from the family of al-`Abbas, and slaughter in it a patient (?) sacrifice, then go out to Kufa.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: A youth from the Banu Hashim will go out, in his right hand will be a mark from Khorasan with black standards before him, Shu`ayb b. Salib fighting the companions of the Sufyani and defeating them.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: The black standards which come out from Khorasan will descend upon Kufa. So when the Mahdi appears in Mecca, they will send allegiance to him.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: The Sufyani will spread his armies in the horizons after the entrance of Kufa and Baghdad, so its branch will reach it from Transoxiana from the people of Khorasan, and it will come upon the people of the East with killing, and their saved ones will go. So when that reaches him, he will send a great army to Estakhr, upon them there will be a man from the Banu Umayya. So there will be a battle for them at Qawmas and a battle at Dawlat ar-Ray and a battle at Takhum Zaranj. At that, the Sufyani will command for the killing of the people of Kufa and the people of Medina. At that the black standards will come from Khorasan upon all the people, a youth from the Banu Hashim with a mark on his right hand, Allah will make his affair and course easy. Then he will have a battle on the boundaries of Khorasan, and the Hashimid will go in the road of Ray. So a man from the Banu Tamim will discharge (?) from the mawali, he will called Shu`ayb b. Salih, to Estakhr to the Ummawid. So he and the Mahdi and the Hashimid will meet at Bayda Estakhr and between them will be a great massacre, against them will be a man from the Banu `Udayy. So Allah will make His helpers and His armies appear, then there will be a battle at al-Mada’in after two battles at Ray. And in `Aqirqufa there will be a battle, and a battle in Saylamiyya. Every saved person will be informed of it. Then after it there will be a great slaughter at Babel, and a battle in a land from the lands of the Nasibis. Then a group from their multitude will rebel against the Sufyani, and they are a faction of their commonalty from Kufa and Basra, until they liberate what is in their hands from the prisoners of Kufa.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: The black standards which will come from Khorasan will descend upon Kufa. So when the Mahdi appears in Mecca, they will send allegiance to the Mahdi. The armies will send it (?) to Medina, and what he does of killing in it.

al-Walid from a Shaykh from Jabir from Abu Ja`far. He said: So he will reach the people of Medina and the army will go out to them, so those who are from the Family of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله will flee from it to Mecca, bearing the weak severe (?) ones, and the weak great one (old?). So they will reach a Soul from the Family of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله and slaughter him at the olive stones.

al-Walid from a Shaykh from Jabir from Abu Ja`far. He said: He will destroy (?) them so there will not remain from them but two men from Kalb, their names are Wabar and Wubayr, their faces will rotate in the back of their necks (?).

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: When the Sufyani attains the killing of the Pure Soul, and he is the one written upon, so the commonality of the Muslims will flee from the Sanctuary of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وآله to the Sanctuary of Allah تعالى in Mecca. So when that reaches him, he will send an army to Medina, upon them is a man from Kalb, until they reach the desert. It will sink in with them, and their commander will escape. And they mention that he is from Mudhhaj, and some of them say from Kalb.

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: A caller from Heaven will call out that the truth is in the Family of Muhammad, and a caller will call out from the Earth that the truth is in the Family of `Isa, or he said al-`Abbas, I doubt regarding it. The lower voice is only from Shaytan to confuse the people. Abu `Abdillah Nu`aym doubted (regarding the name).

Sa`id Abu `Uthman from Jabir al-Ju`fi from Abu Ja`far. He said: Then the Mahdi will appear in Mecca at `isha, and with him will be the standard of the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وآله, his shirt, his sword, and signs and light and elucidation. So when he has prayed `isha, he will call out with the top of his voice saying “I remind you of Allah, O people, and your station before you Lord. He has taken the proof, sent the prophets, and sent down the book. And He commanded you to not associate anything with Him and that you maintain His obedience and the obedience of His Messenger, and that you revive what the Quran has brought to life, and deaden what it has caused to die. And that you be helpers upon guidance and ministers upon god-fearing. For the extinction and disappearance of the world has drawn near, and foreshadowed the farewell. So I call you to Allah and to His Messenger, and acting by His book, and causing falsehood to die and reviving his sunna.” So he will appear in three hundred and thirteen men, the number of the people of Badr, without appointment, a cirrus like the autumn cirrus, as a monk by night, a lion by day. So Allah will open the land of the Hijaz for the Mahdi, and take out whoever is in prison from the Banu Hashim. And the black standards will descend upon Kufa, and they will send the allegiance to the Mahdi. And the Mahdi will send his armies in the horizons, and cause injustice and its people to die. And the cities will become straightened for him, and upon his hands Allah will conquer Constantinople.